The Internet is a worldwide decentralized network of computers having the ability to communicate with each other. The Internet has gained broad recognition as a viable medium for communicating and interacting across multiple networks. The World Wide Web (Web) was created in the early 1990's and is comprised of server-hosting computers (Web servers) connected to the Internet that have hypertext documents or Web pages stored therewithin. Web pages are accessible by client programs (i.e., Web browsers) utilizing the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) via a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connection between a client-hosting device and a server-hosting device. While HTTP and hypertext documents are the prevalent forms for the Web, the Web itself refers to a wide range of protocols including Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Gopher, and content formats including plain text, Extensible Markup Language (XML), as well as image formats such as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG).
Specific to the Web, a Web server is a computer program (housed in a computer) that serves requested Web pages and files. A Web client is a requesting program associated with a user. A Web browser is an exemplary Web client for use in requesting Web pages and files from Web servers.
A Web site is conventionally a collection of Web pages and files related to a particular subject that includes a beginning file called a home page. A large Web site may reside on a number of geographically-dispersed Web servers. The Web site of the International Business Machines Corporation (www.ibm.com), for example, consists of thousands of Web pages and files spread out over various Web servers in locations world-wide.
As is known to those skilled in this art, a Web page is conventionally formatted via a standard page description language such as HyperText Markup Language (HTML), which typically contains text and graphics references and can reference sound, animation (e.g., via programs and/or scripts), and video data. HTML provides for basic document formatting and allows a Web content provider to specify hypertext links (typically manifested as highlighted text) to other Web servers and files. When a user selects a particular hypertext link, a Web browser reads and interprets an address, called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with the link, connects the Web browser with the Web server at that address, and makes an HTTP request for the file identified in the link. The Web server then sends the requested file to the client in HTML format which the Web browser interprets and displays to the user.
Exemplary Web browsers include Netscape Navigator® (Netscape Communications Corporation, Mountain View, Calif.) and Internet Explorer® (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash.). Web browsers typically provide a graphical user interface for retrieving and viewing information, applications and other resources hosted by Web servers.
In the business world of yesteryear, shopkeepers often knew their customers by name. Typically, a shopkeeper knew his/her customers' preferences with respect to the products and services offered by the shopkeeper. By knowing information about his/her customers' preferences, a shopkeeper could more adequately meet customer needs and ensure greater business success. For the same reason today, Web site owners would like to learn about the preferences of their customers. Unfortunately, Web site owners typically do not personally know customers who access their Web sites via the Internet.
Many Web pages contain dynamically generated content. Dynamically generated content allows Web site owners to select the content for a delivered Web page, as well as manipulate the placement of that content within the Web page, for various purposes. It would be desirable to collect information about the effectiveness of content selection and placement each time a Web visitor comes to a Web site, for example by measuring the length of time a visitor views particular content within a Web page. By knowing this type of information, a Web site owner can determine the efficacy of content presentation on the Web site, and can tailor content to particular users. Unfortunately, current Web servers may not have the ability to collect information about the content that a Web site visitor views.